Thank God not with Bobby.
The idea that I could be sitting here with Sharon and Vicki right now, completely ignorant of everything Bobby’s been doing, makes me sick to my stomach.
Heaven only knows how many years I would’ve wasted with him before I discovered the truth. Before I’d have to start over mentally, emotionally, and grieve something that was supposed to be sacred.
But now that Bronte forced himself in and made himself known as a potential fill-in, it doesn’t hit as hard as I think it would if he hadn’t.
“Thank you,” I force from my throat. “But I have things to do before I think about kids.”
“Is Bobby okay with that?”
I meet Sharon’s gaze and recall how much she likes him. He charmed her pants off because that was his specialty. It’s what drew you in and made you blind to everything else, apparently.
“He’s going to have to be,” I reply. “I’m not ready.”
Sharon and Vicki share a look, I’m sure picking up on my animosity toward a future withBobby.
However, a future with Bronte…my mind has been opening upto that.
“Meirna,” I heard Bonnie coo, her always friendly and chirper tone hitting my ears. “Bobby is here to see you.”
I smile, despite myself.
Bronte said he’d be swinging by to see me within a day or two because he had some things to take care of. And I noticed that I didn’t suspiciously think something crazy.
Immediately rising from my chair, Sharon and Vicki are beaming because I probably am too. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me for a second.”
“Take more than a second,” Vicki quips devilishly. “There’s that vacant office?—”
“Vic,stop,” Sharon lightly scolds as I begin for the lobby. “She’s a young woman. A lady.”
“Is that what you tell yourself because that’s where you and Richard were last Saturday?”
Gross.
No.
God.
Ugh.
Steppingquicklythrough the threshold, I enter the lobby, excitement brimming through me to see Bronte because, honestly, I missed him. Being back to my life before everything happened feels freakishly weird and inadequate.
I love being here at Silver Pines to visit my seniors, and I want to continue working to make this place a magnificent place for them to live.
However, everything else feels like it no longer fits. It’s stale and old, something that feels like a distant dream even though it wasn’t that long ago.
“Hey, babe.”
My feet screech to a halt before my gaze flicks and locks towardthatvoice.
That voice that lied to me.
That voice that filled my head with dreams and aspirations about being a power couple while I still tried to get this man to eat a hamburger.
I may not have stupidly noticed it before, but I do now.
Bobby has more of a baby face than Bronte does. Bronte has sharper edges, and I immediately notice that Bobby isn’t as tall.
